Wood floors are a durable and elegant flooring option for purposes of either constructing or remodeling an interior space. However, wood is not a simple material, at least for purposes of fabrication. That is, wood is both hydroscopic and anisotropic. As is generally known, the term “hydroscopic” means that wood will readily exchange water with its surroundings, in which any gain or loss of water can result in dimensional changes to the machined shape of a wooden object. In addition, these dimensional changes are also “anisotropic”, meaning that the wooden object being fabricated does not change dimension with equal magnitude in every direction. Resulting unequal dimensional changes can lead to several problems or issues during the service life of wood floors. These issues can include crowning or cupping of individual flooring pieces, gapping between adjacent flooring pieces, and localized or widespread heaving of the floor, among others.
Many of the current floor installation assembly methods employed by those in the industry mitigate the above-noted dimensional issues by mechanically restraining the connected sections of wood with fasteners and adhesives, bonding each section to a structural substrate. These assembly systems are sufficient as long as the dimensional variation in the material does not create forces that exceed either the elastic limit of the flooring material or the forces created by the fasteners and adhesives bonding the flooring material to the structural substrate.
So-called “floating floors” are an ideal way to compensate for dimensional changes in a flooring material, since the floor is not directly fastened (and therefore constrained) to a structural substrate. Instead, the floor is joined to the remaining flooring components making up the floating floor. This latter technique allows the floor to change dimension as a single composite sheet, preventing noticeable gapping between adjacent flooring pieces. Providing for lateral movement also prevents failure of the flooring material that can result from confining dimensional changes. The joining of the various flooring components is primarily achieved by forming or milling small interlocking tongue and groove sections into the flooring planks. While this technique has been made possible with engineered laminate and composite wood floors, success has not been achieved with solid wood due to directional weaknesses in the material.
There are known static connector systems that can be used with more dimensionally stable materials, such as so-called “compact laminate.” These latter systems rely on relatively precise matching between grooves and/or protrusions on each wood panel with corresponding protrusions and/or grooves on the static connector, thereby creating a mechanical interference or press fit. Connectors of this type have not found widespread application in wood product flooring assembly systems. The dimensional variation(s) experienced by wood products following installation changes the shape of all machined services. Therefore, as the flooring components are caused to shrink or swell, creating forces that the connector would need to overcome, the shape and size of grooves and protrusions on the wood product flooring components needed to interface with the static connector will also change accordingly. The change could reduce or otherwise compromise effectiveness of the mechanical interference or press fit that is required to hold the various flooring components together.